14 February 2017

The Not-Quite States of America comes out TODAY. Here's everything I want you to know.

More than three years ago, I began working on a book about the U.S. territories. I traveled more than 31,000 miles to visit these far-flung islands, flying on ocean-crossing jets and shoebox-size planes, riding on ferries and in the back of pickup trucks, and slooowly easing rental cars along potholed mountain roads. I spent even more time writing and rewriting and rerewriting and paging though books and scrolling through microfiche and tracking down old newspapers.

Today, the book is officially here, published by W.W. Norton. And, ahem ...

I’m genuinely excited for you to read the book. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll learn some interesting things about these places and their cultures and their histories, and get a new perspective on the USA as a whole--who we are, how we got here. There are World War II battles and beer-drinking pigs and family backyard barbecues. A glowing bay, an abandoned mall, a Micronesian Stonehenge.

Consider this post A Brief Review of the Things I Want You to Know about The Not-Quite States of America, including:

You can also get it for your Kindle or other e-reader. And there's an audio version, though I can't find the link right this second and I'll have to update this sentence when I find it.

Thank you! Thank you so much.

* * *

Please spread the word. Thanks in advance.

Truth: Publishing is brutal and I need all the help I can get to stand out (especially since the Biggest Book of the Season—the new novel by George Saunders—is being released on the same day).

So! As you read, if you see something interesting or noteworthy, give a holler on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Friendster/whatever. Feel free to tag me (Twitter: @douglasmack / Facebook: @DougMackAuthor) or use the hashtag #NotQuiteStates.

And when you’re done with the book—it’s 280 pages, a fast read—I’d sure appreciate it you would tell your friends and also leave a review somewhere.

Do a reader recommendation at your local store (if they do that sort of thing)

The book mixes history, travel, and politics, with the ultimate goal of giving you, dear reader, a sense of why the territories matter and what they're like and why they should be a bigger part of our national conversation.

You'll read about history, including:

The territories role in the broader story of American expansion--it was never just about heading west but also about going overseas

How farmers' need for fertilizer in the mid-1800s led to a major quest to find tiny islands

covered in guano--bird poop--which then paved the way for more expansion

Why the territories were arguably the biggest topic in the USA around 1900--the so-called "Imperial Moment"--and why they eventually fell out of the national conversation

How a series of Supreme Court cases, starting around 1900, made territory residents essentially second-class citizens, without the full rights of Americans in the states

The critical role of our Pacific islands in World War II. Guam and two Aleutian islands were occupied by the Japanese for much of the war.

You'll read about my own adventures and misadventures--hiking in the mountains of American Samoa, failing to learn salsa dancing in Puerto Rico, eating amazing barbecue on Guam. But my larger goal is to amplify the voices and stories of the people in the territories.

These include:

A pair of radio DJs who gave me an impromptu tour of Saint Croix

Rastafari farmers on the island of Saint Thomas

Conservation workers in American Samoa working to protect their reefs and other natural resources

American Samoan lawyers fighting for citizenship rights. (Currently, American Samoans are US nationals, not citizens. It's ... complicated.)

The organizer of Samoan tattooing festival, who helped bring the art form back and share it with the world

Members of a military veterans' motorcycle club on Guam, who showed me around the island's World War II battlegrounds

Immigrants from other nations seeking their own American Dreams in the territories, including a woman from China who came to Saipan to work in its notorious garment factories

Activists in each territory who are fighting for a different political status--some argue for statehood, others want independence

A pedigreed chef who had long worked in famous restaurants in the states and in Panama, but had just opened his own spot in a small mountain town in Puerto Rico. (Hi, Carlos!)

And, finally, you'll learn about the territories' role in the present-day story of the USA, from immigration to economics to the build-up of the military base on Guam, the better to keep an eye on China (even while Guam opens its doors to increasing numbers of Chinese tourists).

The territories, I argue, are the USA's most important domestic policy issue no one is talking about.

* * *

Events

We’re still working out the details for several events, including New York, Washington, DC, Seattle, and Portland. But the following events are confirmed:

Thursday, February 23 at 7pm
Book launch party at Honey in Northeast Minneapolis

My first book was Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day(Perigee Books/Penguin, 2012), a travel memoir about my attempt to tour Europe guided only by a 1963 copy of the guidebook Europe on Five Dollars a Day. This blog has its roots in that trip, and if you dig back to the 2009 archives, you'll find my posts from the road.

*

Keep in touch

Long live the handwritten letter!

I'm on a mission to keep handwritten letters and postcards alive. Write to me! I'll write back (eventually--be warned that I'm kind of slow).